[caption id="attachment_74726" align="alignleft" width="208"] Workers in front of the office of construction firm Saudi Oger in Riyadh. — Reuters[/caption]Saleh Al-Zahrani JEDDAH — Unable to pay salaries and renew medical insurance for its 20,000 employees for the past eight months, Saudi Oger Ltd. is expected to declare bankruptcy to get over its acute finical problems, according to economists. The Riyadh-based construction company failed to pay financial dues to medical insurance companies resulting in the stoppage of medical insurance to its employees, said a Saudi Oger source, who did not want to be identified "The problem is not only with medical insurance, but also with the end of service benefits. Some employees are entitled to more than SR500,000," he said. The company is liable to pay medical insurance and the fees of the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI), said a number of economists and lawyers. The only way for the company to get out of its present financial predicament is to declare bankruptcy, they said. "The company can get out of its commitment to pay its dues by openly announcing bankruptcy," said Adnan Khoja, member of the insurance committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI). He said that if a company fails to pay medical insurance premium, then the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) — which is responsible for monitoring insurance companies — is informed. The Council of Cooperative Health Insurance (CCHI) unusually intervenes when a private company fails to pay medical insurance premium for its employees, Khoja said. When SAMA cancels a medical contract, the premiums are transferred into debts on a company, he said.
